Teaching Social Skills to Individuals with Comorbid Down Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Single-Subject Design Study

Social skills are important for building and maintaining relationships, effective communication, and providing appropriate responses within social contexts. Deficits in social skills are often exhibited in individuals with comorbid Down syndrome (DS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Peer-delivered interventions and other behavioral techniques for teaching specific social skills show effectiveness; however, the paucity of intervention research including individuals with DS-ASD has resulted in little guidance for how best to teach social skills and ensure generalization and maintenance. In the present study, a multiple probe study across behaviors, replicated across participants, assessed the effectiveness of peer-delivered simultaneous prompting in teaching socials skills to four adults with DS-ASD. The overarching purposes of this project were (a) to explore whether peer-mediators with DS-only can use simultaneous prompting reliably for teaching social skills, and (b) to examine the influence of simultaneous prompting to teach social skills to adults with dual-diagnoses of DS and ASD. Study findings add to the DS-ASD literature base on intervention design and implementation as well as the literature base for intervention delivery by peers with identified developmental and intellectual disabilities

Genome-wide association study identifies acyl-lipid metabolism candidate genes involved in the genetic control of natural variation for seed fatty acid traits in Brassica napus L.

Brassica napus L. represents a potential plant feedstock for the sustainable production of hydrotreated renewable fuels needed to support carbon-based energy production. However, to increase the use of plant-derived oils for energy needs, breeding efforts are required to optimize the amount and profile of fatty acids (FAs) contained in the oil extracted from B. maims seed to meet demands of the various market categories. To this end, we analyzed the genetic basis of FA content and composition of seed from a diverse panel of spring-type B. napus accessions evaluated at four US locations across multiple years. The extent of phenotypic variations for total oil content, nine FA compounds, and 14 derivative traits were found, in general, to be highly heritable. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted that detected 53 SNPs significantly associated with one or more of the 24 FA seed traits, resulting in the implicated genetic role of 12 candidate genes, four of which had two homologs each, from the acyl-lipid pathway. To our knowledge, the two detected homologs of 3-Ketoacyl-CoA thiolase (KAT), have never been associated with seed oil traits in B. napus. Through the application of whole-genome prediction, the 24 FA seed traits were generally found to have moderately high predictive abilities (70% of traits with abilities > 0.70), suggesting that these traits are highly amenable to genomic selection. Overall, our results contribute to the expanding body of knowledge regarding key enzymes in the acyl-lipid pathway at the quantitative genetic level and illustrate how genomics-assisted breeding could be leveraged to genetically improve FA seed traits in B. napus.24 month embargo; published online: 6 January 2020This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Joint American Academy of Dermatology-National Psoriasis Foundation guidelines of care for the management and treatment of psoriasis in pediatric patients

Psoriasis is a chronic, multisystem, inflammatory disease that affects approximately 1% of children, with onset most common during adolescence. This guideline addresses important clinical questions that arise in psoriasis management and provides evidence-based recommendations. Attention will be given to pediatric patients with psoriasis, recognizing the unique physiology, pharmacokinetics, and patient-parent-provider interactions of patients younger than 18 years old. The topics reviewed here mirror those discussed in the adult guideline sections, excluding those topics that are irrelevant to, or lack sufficient information for, pediatric patients

Joint AAD-NPF guidelines of care for the management and treatment of psoriasis with biologics

Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory multisystem disease that affects up to 3.2% of the US population. This guideline addresses important clinical questions that arise in psoriasis management and care, providing recommendations based on the available evidence. The treatment of psoriasis with biologic agents will be reviewed, emphasizing treatment recommendations and the role of the dermatologist in monitoring and educating patients regarding benefits as well as associated risks

Joint AAD-NPF guidelines of care for the management and treatment of psoriasis with awareness and attention to comorbidities

Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem disease that affects up to 3.2% of the US population. This guideline addresses important clinical questions that arise in psoriasis management and care, providing recommendations on the basis of available evidence

Joint AAD-NPF Guidelines of Care for the Management of Psoriasis With Systemic Non-Biological Therapies

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease involving multiple organ systems and affecting approximately 2% of the world\u27s population. In this guideline, we focus the discussion on systemic, non-biologic medications for the treatment of this disease. We provide a detailed discussion of efficacy and safety for the most commonly used medications-including methotrexate, cyclosporine, and acitretin and provide recommendations to assist prescribers in initiating and managing patients on these treatments. Additionally, we discuss newer therapies, including tofacitinib and apremilast, and briefly touch upon a number of other medications, including fumaric acid esters (used outside the US) and therapies that are no longer widely used for the treatment of psoriasis, i.e. hydroxyurea, leflunomide, mycophenolate mofetil, thioguanine, and tacrolimus

PHarmacist Avoidance or Reductions in Medical Costs in Patients Presenting the EMergency Department: PHARM-EM Study

Objectives:. To comprehensively classify interventions performed by emergency medicine clinical pharmacists and quantify cost avoidance generated through their accepted interventions. Design:. A multicenter, prospective, observational study was performed between August 2018 and January 2019. Setting:. Community and academic hospitals in the United States. Participants:. Emergency medicine clinical pharmacists. Interventions:. Recommendations classified into one of 38 intervention categories associated with cost avoidance. Measurements and Main Results:. Eighty-eight emergency medicine pharmacists at 49 centers performed 13,984 interventions during 917 shifts that were accepted on 8,602 patients and generated $7,531,862 of cost avoidance. The quantity of accepted interventions and cost avoidance generated in six established categories were as follows: adverse drug event prevention (1,631 interventions;$2,225,049 cost avoidance), resource utilization (628; $310,582), individualization of patient care (6,122;$1,787,170), prophylaxis (24; $22,804), hands-on care (3,533;$2,836,811), and administrative/supportive tasks (2,046; $342,881). Mean cost avoidance was$538.61 per intervention, $875.60 per patient, and$8,213.59 per emergency medicine pharmacist shift. The annualized cost avoidance from an emergency medicine pharmacist was $1,971,262. The monetary cost avoidance to pharmacist salary ratio was between$1.4:1 and $10.6:1. Conclusions:. Pharmacist involvement in the care of patients presenting to the emergency department results in significant avoidance of healthcare costs, particularly in the areas of hands-on care and adverse drug event prevention. The potential monetary benefit-to-cost ratio for emergency medicine pharmacists is between$1.4:1 and $10.6:1

Joint American Academy of Dermatology-National Psoriasis Foundation guidelines of care for the management and treatment of psoriasis with phototherapy

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease involving multiple organ systems and affecting approximately 3.2% of the world\u27s population. In this section of the guidelines of care for psoriasis, we will focus the discussion on ultraviolet (UV) light-based therapies, which include narrowband and broadband UVB, UVA in conjunction with photosensitizing agents, targeted UVB treatments such as with an excimer laser, and several other modalities and variations of these core phototherapies, including newer applications of pulsed dye lasers, intense pulse light, and light-emitting electrodes. We will provide an in-depth, evidence-based discussion of efficacy and safety for each treatment modality and provide recommendations and guidance for the use of these therapies alone or in conjunction with other topical and/or systemic psoriasis treatments